Richard Palmer (richp)

Well, where to being...

I am the son of a fresh water ecologist and agricultural rangeland scientist; who, after spending a childhood on field trips in rivers, riffles and dams; on mountains, mudflats and grasslands, inexplicably decided to study mechanical engineering (although only after promising mum to be a "green" engineer).

After 4 years at the University of Cape Town I (even more inexplicably) joined the South African Breweries Ltd. After a short stint I realised that making beer wasn't going to fulfil all my desires, and a move to Sydney brought about a significant professional change. I joined Advanced Environmental (now Built Ecology http://www.wspgroup.com/en/Built-Ecology/homepage-BE/), the specialist sustainable design team of the engineering firm WSP Lincolne Scott and I have worked in sustainable consulting/engineering in the built environment since 2005.

I have since transferred to the WSP business in Africa focusing on the development of green engineering within the business and the progress of sustainable urban design and engineering within the South African property industry. I'm in the process of trying to shift a very big ship in a very slightly new direction in the hope that the momentum will help transform the industry over time (did someone say ripple...?).

My interest in understanding and implementing bio-mimicry in engineering systems has only recently been piqued (following a talk by Janine here in Cape Town in 2010), but is starting to answer a deep and long-held wish to bridge the fields of ecology and design.

The book "Last Chance to See" by Douglas Adams was formative in my thinking on the natural world; especially the chapter called "Sifting through the embers" - the story of the Sybilline books, but told in Mr Adams' inimitable style. You can read it here: http://www.deeshaa.org/sifting-through-the-embers/. The story haunted me since childhood and it is only since starting to look into bio-mimicry that I'm thinking perhaps we haven’t burned the books (yet), but that we just need a particular insight to get to the answers...

So, the areas of engineering which interest me most are:

- Engineering systems thinking and integrated design
- The role of engineering and infrastructure in societal upliftment
- Technical delivery of complex systems and achieving complexity in design
- Facilitate the shifting of perceptions of "engineers" towards more sustainable solutions
- (more and more) the potential to model our engineering systems on the most successful systems we have today - complex ecological communities

My other interests include scuba diving, rock climbing, (digital) photography, playing with my puppies and desperately trying to grasp the spiritual nature of things, despite my seemingly unshifting scepticism of the (or a) unseen world.

So, that's probably enough for you to get a picture...

R